María Elena Walsh
Argentine writer and singer María Elena Walsh brought the wit and verbal play of her books and poems into children’s songs.
Genre
Children’s music: who sang the first song to a child?
No one knows. The oldest instruments archaeologists have found are more than 35,000 years old. They do not tell us what was played or who listened. Lullabies and playground songs bring us closer because people still use them with children.
Children’s music artists
30,996 artists
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Russian: Сергей Сергеевич Прокофьев, romanized: Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev)
Camille Saint‐Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf Jr.
Gebrüder Grimm
Carl Orff
Carl Orff
Anne Murray
Morna Anne Murray
Владимир Высоцкий
Владимир Семёнович Высоцкий
Peter, Paul and Mary
Rosemary Clooney
Gene Autry
Orvon Gene Autry
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton
Burl Ives
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives
Die Wiener Sängerknaben
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger
Randy Newman
Randall Stuart Newman
RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
Stefan Wolf
Rolf Kalmuczak
Paul Dukas
Paul Abraham Dukas
Rita Pavone
Rita Ori Filomena Merk-Pavone
Hans Christian Andersen
Hans Christian Andersen
Alan Menken
Alan Irwin Menken
Roger Miller
Roger Dean Miller Sr.
Spike Jones and His City Slickers
The 35,000-year-old flutes cannot tell us what people played
Archaeologists found flutes made from bone and ivory in caves in southern Germany. They show that an established musical tradition existed more than 35,000 years ago. The tunes disappeared, along with any record of the occasions, performers or listeners.[1]
Someone may have sung directly to a child much earlier. Archaeology cannot recover that moment.[1]
Not every society keeps a separate lullaby repertoire
Stéphane Aubinet reviewed records from 124 societies. In 97, researchers described a distinct body of songs used to soothe children. Another 23 relied on improvised humming, religious music, dance songs or repertory brought from elsewhere. In four cases, the available sources recorded no lullabies.[1]
The study treats those four cases cautiously. Ethnographers have often paid little attention to practices surrounding infants, and absence is difficult to prove. Singing as care is widespread, but societies organize and understand it in different ways.[1]
Children rewrite songs while they play
In 1978, researchers recorded children in New York playgrounds, schools and summer camps. Many songs had traveled from other parts of the United States or from abroad. By the time the researchers heard them, children had changed the words and movements. Clapping and foot-stomping supplied the beat when no instruments were available.[1]
Kathryn Marsh followed the same process for fifteen years in playgrounds across Australia, Norway, the United States, the United Kingdom and Korea. Each group reshaped a song to fit the game at hand.[1]
Natalya Sats asked Prokofiev to introduce an orchestra to children
In 1936, educator Natalya Sats was directing Moscow’s Central Children’s Theatre. She asked Sergei Prokofiev for a piece that would teach young listeners to recognize orchestral instruments. He answered with Peter and the Wolf, assigning an instrument to each character so that the story itself guides the ear. The 1939 recording featured here is narrated by Richard Hale with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky.
Orff and Keetman brought movement and speech into music lessons
After the Second World War, Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman reshaped the Schulwerk for work with children. Short activities joined music, movement, dance and speech, giving a class material it could play, sing and alter together.[1]
Walsh, Sylvestre, Guthrie and Raffi wrote for children in their own musical languages
Anne Sylvestre
French singer-songwriter Anne Sylvestre applied the craft of chanson to a large repertoire written for children.
Woody Guthrie
Woody Guthrie wrote family songs beside the folk, political and traditional music for which he is better known.
Raffi
Canadian singer-songwriter Raffi built a long recording career around songs addressed directly to young listeners.
Television made room for children’s pop stars
Children’s television did not stop at the screen. Its hosts and casts recorded albums and toured theatres, while young viewers learned the choreography at home. DVDs and on-demand video later made room for animated stars such as Galinha Pintadinha and Pinkfong. Those characters could reach another country without waiting for a broadcaster to schedule them.
Xuxa, Parchís and The Wiggles brought pop performance to children’s television
Xuxa
In Brazil, Xuxa turned a daily television show into albums, arena concerts and Spanish-language editions.
Tatiana
Mexico’s Tatiana moved from mainstream pop into a children’s repertoire built for television and the stage.
Parchís
Made up of children, the Spanish group Parchís starred in films and recorded bright, choreographed pop.
The Wiggles
The Australian group carried action songs from early-childhood settings to television and international tours.
Hi-5
Hi-5 arranged music and movement as short routines performed by a recurring Australian cast.
A Turma do Balão Mágico
In 1980s Brazil, the cast of a children’s programme became a recording and touring group in its own right.
Sesame Street
Since 1969, Sesame Street has used songs as a meeting point for its characters, composers and guest performers.
Barney
The purple dinosaur left the television screen with nursery songs, educational music and albums of his own.
Galinha Pintadinha, Pinkfong and CoComelon grew through on-demand video
Galinha Pintadinha
The Brazilian project animated familiar songs and carried its clips into DVDs, albums and stage shows.
Pinkfong
Pinkfong’s version of Baby Shark became a worldwide video and dance phenomenon.
Cocomelon
CoComelon turns everyday routines for small children into animated musical sequences.
Mundo Bita
Mundo Bita connects recurring characters with music videos and live performances.
El Reino Infantil
The Argentine project built a Spanish-language world of recurring characters and children’s songs.
CantaJuego
Spain’s CantaJuego records songs with simple gestures that invite children to follow the cast.
Patati Patatá
The Brazilian clown duo carried its stage songs into music videos, DVDs and television programmes.
LazyTown
LazyTown combined pop songs, characters and physical movement in versions shown across many countries.
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Explore children’s music releases- 1New flutes document the earliest musical tradition in southwestern Germany — Nature,
Archaeological evidence of an established musical tradition more than 35,000 years ago. The instruments do not preserve the repertoire or identify an audience of children.
- 2Lullabies and Universality: An Ethnographic Review — Cross-Cultural Research,
Cross-cultural review distinguishing the widespread practice of soothing children with song from formally recognized lullaby repertoires.
- 3The Musical Playground: Global Tradition and Change in Children's Songs and Games — Oxford University Press,
Ethnomusicological research on songs, games, dances and improvisations transmitted and reshaped among children.
- 4Songs for Children from New York City — Smithsonian Folkways Recordings,
Recordings made in New York playgrounds, schools and summer camps in 1978, documenting songs adapted by children with clapping and foot-stomping.
- 5Peter and the Wolf — Library of Congress,
National Recording Registry essay on Prokofiev's work for children, its narration and its assignment of instruments to characters.
- 6Pädagogisches Werk — Orff-Zentrum München,
Institutional account of Orff Schulwerk, Gunild Keetman's collaboration, and the connection between music, movement, dance and speech.
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